WAGES AND HOURS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 83, 9 April 1928, Page 6

WAGES AND HOURS

i TEADE UNION POLICY THE UNSKILLED WORKER (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 19th January. While undoubtedly the trade outlook for 1928 is, in general, bright and brightening, there are aspects of it that give cause for considerable thought on the part of leaders in the industrial field. In this connection the observations and reflections of Sir George B. Hunter (chairman of Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson, Shipbuilders) as expressed in an interview with the "Financial Times" representative, will be of wide interest, "The prospects at the beginning of the year it; uncertain," remarked Sir George. "Last year the business placed in the shipbuilding yards was quite surprising under the then existing circumstances. As to the future I do not want to be a pessimist, but I am afraid I cannot be a super-optimist. "In respect to the acquisition of orders our men could help us. lam of opinion that it is very much better to have the whole of our men at work at reduced wages than part at high wages. The trad© unions act on the opposite policy. Ten years of peace, and we still have a mjllion unemployed. Why? Because the trade unions have pursued this policy of high wages and short hours/ "We used to build ships for the whole world. At present we are building for our own country and; Norway, the only foreign country where one can now get orders. Whereas my firm used to build large numbers of ships in the past for Germany and France, the first-named country is now the second largest shipbuilding country in the world, and places no orders for ships here. Italy, which was pre-war quite negligible in shipbuilding, has got into the fourth place, and is building largely on her own account. The French are dependent upon subsidies and are not very flourishing. ADVANCE OF SWEDEN. "The country that has gone most ahead in its shipbuilding is Sweden.. The workmen there enjoy high wages as the result of payment by results and hard work. The yards—there are not many—are, full of work, and we in England cannot touch them for costs, cither for ships or engines. '' Speaking generally, shipbuilding has not boon quite up to pro-war level in volume. The total tonnage at present under construction throughout the world is 3,118,000, which, although much larger than the average for the last five years, is less by 185,000 tons than the average reached during tho last twelve months before the war. "Under our present system, our million unemployed will never be provided with work bocause these men, generally speaking, are unskilled men like labourers, or semi-skilled men like the miners. They are not trained craftsmen—that is, liko the joiner, the plumber, and the bricklayer. There is really not so much unemployment among tho skilled men. Tho unemployment problem will only bo solved by theso unskilled men being trained and gradually absorbed into skilled industries. "By dilution? Yes, but this the trade unions object to. Low, too, as tho miner's wages are, he can 'earn more than the skilled shipwright, whose wages are now 55s 6d weekly; on tho other hand, the minor can average ovor the whole of tho industry, including boys as well as men, his 10s 2d per shift, without taking into account tho froo house and free coals that ho rocoives. Sir Goorge Hunter was warm in his praise of tho experimental Government establishments for tho training of men, and noted that somo oxcellont trainees had been turned out after six months' training. He is, too, in favour of carofully thought-out emigration, and, indeed, ho stressed tho importance of it.